Orange County time capsule opened after 25 years

ORLANDO, Fla. — As the Orange County Courthouse was being built, a time capsule was hidden under its soon-to-be rotunda, loaded with memories of 1995 and predictions for 2020.

One idea --- an Orlando Sentinel contest submission received by then columnist Greg Dawson --- bet that Shaquille O’Neal would be Florida’s governor by now; another reader suggested that former Disney CEO Michael Eisner would win the 2020 Presidential Election.

Though we live in a much different version of the 21st century, the busy and arguably more positive attitude of a younger Orlando was rediscovered during this morning’s opening ceremony in the now completed courthouse, officiated by Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings.

“Bill Clinton was president of the United States of America, Lawdon Chiles was governor of Florida [...] the Orlando Magic finished first in the NBA Atlantic Division and went to the 1995 NBA Championships, the Space Shuttle Atlantis docks with the Russian Mir space station, Walt Disney World had three theme parks at the time and opened Blizzard Beach in 1995, Universal Orlando had one theme park and had just celebrated its fifth anniversary,” Demings said.

“Quite a bit was going on, time has flown by so quickly, but it’s fun to look back on the past,” Demings said.

Mobile users, see the full ceremony on Orange TV here.

The capsule was stowed away on November 21, 1995 after a ceremony led by then Orange County Chairman Linda Chapin, one of today’s special guests who returned to see the torpedo-shaped science project cracked open.

“Today is a day when I can be glad to see old friends and new friends, I can be happy to celebrate the fact that this courthouse has played the role that I envisioned, that we all envisioned for it,” Chapin said.

“At the time, I used to say and still do that the courthouse is the heart of a community, and so it has proven to be, the place where people come to get their birth certificates and their marriage licenses, many happy occasions occur here in this room,” Chapin said.

The time capsule contained the usual suspects: hundreds of photographs, memorabilia from popular businesses, copies of local newspapers, and so on.

The first item pulled from the capsule was a laminated piece of yellow paper covered in photos, what Orange County Regional History Center chief curator Pamela Schwartz explained was made by Lockhart Middle School students now entering their 40′s.

“In January of 1995, the then Orange County Historical Museum actually did a lot of different activities gathering photos from around the community, and so that’s one of the participating institutions, Lockhart Middle School,” Schwartz said.

The capsule’s contents will be handed over to the History Center for safe keeping and possible future display.

Cox Media Group